Yesterday's CT-guided needle bone biopsy

I say "least-easy" not because the biopsy involved drilling—though it did—but because it was a long, drawn-out, frustrating day.

This particular scan took place at Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, where I had my knee surgeries and where I see my oncologist and where I see my double mastectomy surgeon and NP and where see my cardiologist and cardiology NP. I've been in most of the scan machines there it seems.

Yesterday my sister and I arrived a little before nine in the morning. We had been instructed to arrive two hours before the procedure was scheduled at 11 am. And I had been fasting from food and water for six hours before the procedure. I think it took about 30 minutes before the volunteer took us upstairs to the procedure area. Along the way she shared that she had had a biopsy and that it was VERY PAINFUL but that I'd be lightly sedated for mine so it shouldn't be painful. When she tried to explain all about her biopsy I said, "STOP!"

I do NOT was any details about painful procedures because my imagination takes me there into the pain. And more often my imagination comes up with a worse situation than what I actually experience.

She did stop. We all got on the elevator to the second floor and went to the check-in desk where the patient advocate took me right back. The advocate told my sister that she'd bring her back to me in about an hour. The advocate asked my height and weighed me and showed me the room I'd be in. I stopped off at the restroom and then went to the room and my nurse for the day came in. She was hustling, doing everything quickly. She left while I got undressed and put on the hospital gown (that kept falling off). She came back shortly and got me in the bed.

I was concerned with the angle of the bed—certain angles cause pain and/or tingling. I have an adjustable bed at home. I got it last month, and boy has that been a good investment. This bed at the hospital wasn't hooked up electronically so of course any adjustment had to be done manually.

That was how the day went, a Murphy's-law kind of day. But we got an angle that wasn't painful. Well, after I had to ask for something to go under my knees. That turned out to be the ONE extra pillow that was around.

Next the nurse hooked me up to everything. Finger pulse/oxygen monitor, chilly EKG stickies, blood pressure cuff. She took my temp.

And then the IV stick.

As I've said before, I'm a difficult stick. She looked at several veins in my hand and wrist and chose one on the side of my wrist. She said because it was in my wrist it would hurt. And boy, did it! This was the most painful IV I've ever had. Insertion wasn't fast. She kept moving the needle. And then moved it once more. And it kept hurting after she was done. I got concerned the needle might need to come out.

But I got used to the low-level pain. And yes, that I had that low-level pain in my wrist until the IV came out hours later.

It took probably 30 minutes for the nurse to do all of this. And then she left and showed me the call button and TV button.

And I waited. I browsed on my phone. Let my mind wander. My back started hurting so I called for help so I could sit on the edge of the bed. Sometimes just moving helps relieve the pain. I got the nurse to try a different angle for the bed. And then finally they contacted my sister and she came in with me.

And we waited. And waited. And waited.

Why in the world did we need to be there TWO hours early?? The procedure was scheduled for 11am. At 11:30 I was still waiting.

And finally around 11:40 a nurse from the CT area came in to get me.

And she said they didn't have the results of the PET scan!

I was incredulous!

Yesterday was Thursday and my PET scan was on Tuesday of the week before. So Tennessee Oncology' s Chattanooga PET and Imaging Center had over a week to send the results. This nurse said they would have to do a CT scan using my oncologist's notes because they didn't have PET scan results.

And she said it wasn't unusual. That Tennessee Oncology didn't send the scan results probably 50 percent of the time!!

If my sister and I had known, we'd have driven to the PET scan center earlier this week and asked in person for the results and hand-delivered them to Memorial Hospital. But we didn't know.

So finding the best place in my bones to conduct the biopsy wasn't as clear as it should have been if the doc could have looked at the PET scan results. I'm still incredulous that Tennessee Oncology did not (and often does not) send results as requested!

The CT nurse wheeled me into the scan room with the CT machine. A very well-used CT machine. Not a brand new machine like the PET scan machine at the Tennessee Oncology PET and Imaging Center.

The nurse and her helper asked if I could lie on my stomach. I haven't done that in a long time. But I was willing to try. And it turned out I can lie on my stomach. And then they wanted my arms up over my head so the CT scan could get clear images of my chest and abdomen areas. My shoulder often hurts and since I started having lots of pain and having trouble getting around a few months ago I've hardly done any stretching, so I knew having my arms overhead would be painful.

But I did manage to get them over my head. Though not quite where they wanted my arms so they pushed and forced my arms into an uncomfortable position. I had pain in a weird place that I finally realized was where the surgeon had to cut through some muscle to get that very first breast cancer tumor out in the lumpectomy 14 years ago.

And one time when they pushed I felt something snap.

They were in get-it-done mode and not really listening to me so I just figured I'd try to breathe into the pain and could tolerate it through the scan time. And I did.

I was getting two meds intravenously. One for pain and one of light anesthesia. I had asked if the biopsy would be painful, and they said I might feel pressure but it shouldn't feel painful. I said "like at the dentist."

That's just what it was like.

Two young men introduced themselves to me. One was an NP but I don't remember what his specific job was. And one was the doc who did the scan. I was lying on my stomach when the doc bent over to introduce himself. I asked him to squat down so I could see his face. He looked kind. And young.

I have trouble with these details because of the meds. I do remember feeling pressure. And I did hear a drill.

I knew he was drilling into bone. They had said earlier that my oncologist had specified the iliac bone, and that area matched up with the pressure I was feeling. Or seemed to. Because I wasn't completely "present."

And I'm glad I wasn't. Because I'm sure having a bone drilled into hurts if you don't have some anesthesia.

But I wasn't hurting. Well, only hurting in the area where that muscle had been cut during my lumpectomy.

I vaguely remember them helping me get up and back onto the hospital bed and the ride back to my initial room where my sister was waiting. The nurse there said I had to wait two hours before she could discharge me because I had anesthesia.

Sheesh, TWO MORE hours.

I asked for something to drink and eat. She brought the ginger ale I wanted plus a turkey sandwich and some crackers. I ate half of the sandwich to see how my stomach tolerated it. And later I ate a quarter and gave my sister the other quarter.

I felt a little nauseated the rest of the day, and it finally hit me today that that was because of anesthesia.

Somehow my sister and I passed the two hours. We talked and browsed on our phones. She helped me get on the edge of the bed a couple of times because my back was hurting. But not hurting where the biopsy was. The nurse came in probably 20 minutes before the two hours was up and started disconnecting me. Last to come out was that yucky IV. I signed the discharge papers.

And they were ready to wheel me downstairs to the car at the two-hour mark. My sister drove me straight home. I was tired and hungry but nothing seemed appetizing. So I had some soup that a very kind friend had sent me a couple of days before.

Amazingly I did not have pain at the biopsy site. Before I went to bed I got my sister to take a photo so I could see exactly where it was.

But I DID have pain where I felt something pop. It hurt at that old lumpectomy site to lift anything with my left arm.

I went to bed around 10pm and slept until 1:10am when pain at the biopsy site woke me. I guess the meds from the procedure wore off then. Luckily the pain at the old lumpectomy site has lessened a whole lot.

And I was awake from then until around 6am. Then I slept some in my recliner and when it got too painful for the biopsy site I went to my bed. I slept there until 9:30 or 10 o'clock.

I feel so much better today. And my stomach feels a lot better. And I have an appetite.

The biopsy site hurts but pain meds help.

I see my oncologist Wednesday afternoon. So I have several days "off." That feels good.

I could fee the good energy y'all were sending. It really does help when friends and family members pray for and think positively of us. I am sure of that.

We may not experience healing of the disease, but we do feel healing of "dis-ease." I believe that positive energy helps us feel more "at ease" with whatever we deal with.

So I am grateful for each one of you. You help heal my "dis-ease"!